"I Don't Know What Happened in the Gosnell Case"

During a press conference at the Washington Press Club on Monday, the Weekly Standard’s John McCormack asked Texas State Senator and possible gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis a simple yet straight forward question: what is the difference between the late-term abortions you support and what the ex-abortionist Kermit Gosnell did in his Philadelphia slaughterhouse?

She didn’t even attempt to answer the question:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD: The supporters of these bans, they argue that there really isn't much of a difference between what happened in that Philadelphia case with abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell [killing born-alive infants] 23 weeks into pregnancy and legal late-term abortions at 23 weeks. What is the difference between those two, between legal abortion at 23 weeks and what Gosnell did? Do you see a distinction between those two [acts]?

SEN. WENDY DAVIS: I don't know what happened in the Gosnell case. But I do know that it happened in an ambulatory surgical center. And in Texas changing our clinics to that standard obviously isn't going to make a difference. The state of the law obviously has to assure that doctors are providing safe procedures for women and that proper oversight by the health and human services department is being given. It sounds as though there was a huge gap in that oversight, and no one can defend that. But that's not the landscape of what's happening in Texas.

You don’t know what happened, Ms. Davis? I’m sorry but I find that hard to believe. Sure, the media went to great lengths to suppress the details of the trial and invented all sorts of excuses not to cover it, but the late-term abortion ban you opposed (and filibustered) was introduced in large part because of what happened in Philadelphia. The Gosnell trial mobilized Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill and in the state governments to take collective action. Their goal was to protect women and their pain-capable unborn (and born alive) children from death. As a top national spokeswoman for women’s health, it seems implausible that she wouldn’t have the vaguest idea who he is.

At the same time, pro-choice advocates incessantly argue that late-term abortion bans harm women, but in fact 60 percent of women support them, according to a recent national poll. A majority of the public does too. But the Left’s hellish scare tactics give the distinct impression that somehow supporting a late-term abortion ban is politically unpopular.